BEIJING, June 5 -- Chinese President Hu Jintao met here Thursday with a delegation of the Party of European Socialists (PES) headed by the party's president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), highlighted the important role the PES played in European political affairs, adding that the CPC values its ties with the PES and the two sides share identical or similar views on many significant international issues.

The CPC would, in a spirit of shelving ideological difference and seeking for mutual understanding and cooperation, strengthen friendly exchange and cooperation with the PES and its member parties on the basis of independence, equality, mutual respect and non-intervention in each other's internal affairs, Hu said.

China would make its utmost efforts to step up the China-EU all-round strategic partnership to promote long-lasting peace, common prosperity and harmony of the world, the Chinese President noted.

Rasmussen spoke positively about CPC's efforts to promote social harmony and China's achievements in social and economic development he witnessed during the visit, saying that China and the European Union (EU) share more and more common interests with the rapid development of globalization.

He expressed his hope that China could play a bigger role in international affairs, pledging that the PES would work hard to push forward the candid exchange and mutually beneficial cooperation between the CPC and PES, and among China and the EU members.

You mean it's not similar policies the likes of Hugo and his mini-mes want to implement with a South American Union?

I think this quote from Marx may explain where the EU and the rest of the world may head:

"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade."-- Karl Marx, "On the Question of Free Trade," speech delivered to Democratic Association of Brussels, January 9, 1848

"china is very anti worker, the EU is a group of aging superpowers trying to futher their power by centralizing."

Please, last time I checked, China was still retained control by the Communist Party of China which supported much of psuedo-liberalization of China's economy under both "hardliners" (Mao being an example) and "moderates" (Deng being an example) alike.

The EU is heading toward also becoming a superstate quite akin to what the likes of Hugo Chavez and his mini-mes have been touting for South America to be.